March 12 (Bloomberg) -- Peter Thiel, the billionaire
venture capitalist and PayPal Inc. co-founder who has encouraged
would-be entrepreneurs to drop out of college, will teach a
lecture course at Stanford University on startups.

Thiel will instruct students in “Computer Science 183:
Startup,” Mehran Sahami, an associate professor in the
computer-science department, said in a telephone interview. His
course is scheduled to begin next month and enrollment will be
limited to 250, Sahami said.

Thiel, 44, who received undergraduate and law degrees from
Stanford, became a billionaire with investments in PayPal, the
Internet payment company now owned by EBay Inc.; gamemaker Zynga
Inc.; and LinkedIn Corp. He now uses some of his wealth in his
20 Under 20 Thiel Fellowship program, which pays students as
much as $100,000 each, over two years, to drop out of college
and pursue startups. That doesn’t keep him from helping students
pursuing a traditional education.

“He’s done it before and he actually participates quite
frequently here,” said Lisa Lapin, a spokeswoman for the
university, which is based near Palo Alto, California.

Thiel, whose Founders Fund was the first outside investor
in Facebook Inc. in 2004, is ranked No. 293 on a Forbes list in
September of the richest Americans. The founder of Clarium
Capital Management LLC also started the Thiel Foundation, which
runs the 20 Under 20 Thiel Fellowship program.